I've been absent from this place for a couple of weeks now but I intend to fix that now. The last couple weeks have been a roller coaster ride for me. Physically, I've not been doing too well and even ended up in the emergency room last week for reasons I'll not go into here. But I received treatment and medicine and I'm on my way to recovering -- albeit a bit slower than I would like. Another few days and I should be all better. Having great friends and family nearby to help has been a tremendous help that Rick and I have deeply appreciated all that they have done. Thank you so much!
Time keeps marching...and things have still been happening around here despite of everything. Things like...
....our first strawberry of the season! Maia brought a three leaf strawberry plant home from school last year in a dixi-cup and we planted it in the front garden. It has grown and grown and grown and now there is one big 'mother plant' surrounded by seven or eight 'baby' plants. After the first berrying, the mama plant and her children are sending out runners to increase their ranks. This makes us very happy.
Maia really enjoyed having several days of picking strawberries off her plants and eating them. On the third day she began sharing. After tasting the sweetness of the one she gave me I'm amazed at her generosity; I'd have wanted to keep them all for myself!
We have been receiving our CSA share for three weeks now. We switched farms this year and went with Kretschmann's Organic Farm. Our CSA the past two years was really quite lovely but it was important to me to belong to an organic farm and so this year I carefully watched for the sign-up time and didn't miss it this year. Kretchmann's also has connected us with a local chicken grower who raises organic, free-range chickens. We will be receiving two a month for the next five months. Also, they have promised to put us into contact with a beef supplier in the fall who raises organic grass fed cows. We don't eat a lot of meat--perhaps two times a week--but I have an enormous freezer in my basement and I will be putting all of the overflow into it for the winter months.
Our first box contained many fresh greens but I was most excited to see long branches of rosemary. I've been wanting fresh rosemary ever since my rosemary didn't make it through the big snow. I made a garlic and rosemary marinade and then used the shorn rosemary branches as a skewer on the grill. Mmmm! The rosemary and garlic penetrated the chicken inside and out and was just perfect with arancini and fruit.
I became a cheap-wad. Sort of. Tristyn's birthday was coming up and one of the things that he had been wanting for a long time (besides Legos) was an Ugly Doll. I couldn't remember seeing them in stores and I didn't want to pay the full price plus shipping for something that is really a simple design. At the local fabric shop I found some remnant fabric and a big bag of stuffing for less than six dollars. Considering I only used about a third of the stuffing and 75% of the fabric that's pretty darn good! Then, I pulled up the website and selected an ugly doll that looked relatively easy. On a piece of folded newspaper I drew a rough pattern freehanded and cut it out. From there it was just a matter of cutting out two pieces of the fabric, sewing them wrong sides together, turning them right side out, stuffing and finishing up the face. It's not perfect--and it's not exactly the same as the real thing--but it IS an ugly doll...and ugly it is.
I've been finding a lot of inspiration from Sara at Happy Janssens. Sara has a few blogs she writes including one called Happy Foody which I'm enjoying a lot. Probably if she checks her stats she's wondering who the creepy person who has been reading her blog a LOT the last few days is but I promise I'm not creepy! I just find her words and pictures so inspiring and I've been in need of inspiration lately--so thank you Sara!
This stack of oatcakes is from a recipe on Happy Foody. It's a good alternative to traditional pancakes and it tastes like yummy oatmeal. I added cinnamon and vanilla which I think makes it tastes even more like oatmeal.
Oatcakes
adapted from Happy Foody
4 cups traditional (not quick) oatmeal — ground to a flour-like consistency in food processor
4 cups almond/soy/rice milk
4 T melted organic butter
4 large farm fresh eggs
1 tsp sea salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
-Soak oats for 12-24 hours in the milk (store in fridge overnight).
-Mix everything else into that.
-Make pancakes and be happy.
I'm still on the search for the perfect cupcake. This one is getting closer...but not quite there. The texture was good, the flavor was above average but not what I think would be ideal. I topped them with vanilla buttercream and a sprinkling of coconut. I think for now, this chocolate cupcake recipe will have to do because I've exhausted dozens of recipes in the chocolate cupcake quest.
And finally, I'm jumping on the Green Smoothie boat. I've been wanting to for some time now--more thanks to Happy Foody--but I've had a hard start of it. I bought extra fruit in anticipation of last week's CSA box and it's piles and piles of fresh greens but that was the day I ended up at the hospital. By the time I was feeling better to eat anything all the fruit had been gobbled up and the greens were starting to look funny!
Yesterday was CSA day and again I went out and purchased extra fruit (by which I mean in addition to our normal eating fruit) and picked up my CSA box. I spent last night reading up more on green smoothies and talking at Rick about them. He decided he would try one as well but maybe part of that was to get me to stop talking about them? Anyways, we both had our first green smoothies this morning. I made them with kale, strawberries, bananas and a few small clementines plus water. We each drank a 16 ounce serving and you know what? It was pretty good! I did feel there was a slight bitter aftertaste but Rick didn't notice it. I think I have an extra sensitivity to bitter things and can taste bitterness when others cannot. It took me 43 minutes to drink it all but I did feel empowered to have drank it all down AND to have enjoyed it. I haven't noticed any immediate benefits but I've promised myself that I will give this at least one solid week before I decide to continue or stop.
